Home security - Fire Safe

[TrimTheKing]

Good afternoon all

My missus is adamant that she wants a safe in the house for storing valuable paperwork, jewellery and other bits (baby keepsakes etc), so while I have been doing a bit of browsing there is so much on offer it's a bit daunting.

Does anyone on here have any knowledge or experience on fire safes for use in the home, what to look for, any particular market leader etc?

I'm prepared to spend a bit of cash, but don't want it to be ridiculously expensive, but I'm just a bit stumped on where to start.

Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope....

 

[Rich]

You're only supposed to blow the bloody door off. :lol:

Rich.

 

[Ironballs]

I have no particular knowledge of fire safes but I have bought security stuff from these guys before, good service, fair prices and they usually explain pretty well what you're getting.

http://www.saundersonsecurity.co.uk/aca ... Safes.html

As you'll see on the site there are very few safes that are rated to last more than an hour in a fire, which your wife may not know. Interestingly there is one that has a USB connection into it so I imagine you can load various bits of data on, could be handy

 

[wizer]

If it's just to protect from fire more than theft, could you not make one? Does it even have to be inside the main part of the house? I've often wondered why people don't have safes away from the house?

 

[TrimTheKing]

If it's just to protect from fire more than theft, could you not make one? Does it even have to be inside the main part of the house? I've often wondered why people don't have safes away from the house?

It's more to do with theft tbh, but might as well be fireproof (as can be) as well.

 

[houtslager]

simple to make - box of required size, say 300 x300 x300.
solid timber use Parliment hinges and a good 5 lever lock.
Line with plaster board or fermacell - 2 layers = 1 hour fire rating,
line outer skin with metal skin say 2mm steel , cover this again with 2 layers of PB or fermacell, then bury somewhere in garden .

Fire rating 2hours plus , and it would be handy to place a GPS beacon in when the house is burnt to the ground you can find it under the rubble.

HTH

 

[TrimTheKing]

simple to make - box of required size, say 300 x300 x300.
solid timber use Parliment hinges and a good 5 lever lock.
Line with plaster board or fermacell - 2 layers = 1 hour fire rating,
line outer skin with metal skin say 2mm steel , cover this again with 2 layers of PB or fermacell, then bury somewhere in garden .

Fire rating 2hours plus , and it would be handy to place a GPS beacon in when the house is burnt to the ground you can find it under the rubble.

HTH

LOL, brilliant, that's exactly what I'll do.

Have to make sure I don't bury it in the septic tank though, might be a bit difficult to access

 

[bluezephyr]

I bought a Machine Mart fire safe a while back, Quite heavy but no bolt downs, Internal size could be larger! Its cheap and cheerfull as far as safes go but it does the job.

 

[RogerS]

Needs to be bolted down. Don't confuse fire safes with normal safes. Normal safes will let things melt/char/burn inside a lot faster than a fire safe will. Why not keep a photocopy of any documents in safe deposit at your bank. Hell..why not put all the stuff on safe deposit unless you need to access it regularly?

 

[Ironballs]

In a similar vein, I have 2 sets of keys for the industrial locks on my bikes in the garage, one set is always with me, the other set is stored at my Mum and Dads. In other words you could always store stuff at a trusted friend or relatives and offer a return service. People always bemoan the loss of photos in a fire as one of the worst things to lose, you're unlikely to store a bag full of negatives in a fire safe or bank, but you might have them with a relative